Doctor of Ministry Distance Learning Program Launches

Priests, chaplains, and other professionals in ministry may now earn an accredited Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree online through a new program at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, NY. The hybrid program, which combines distance learning with one–week, on–campus intensives, is bridging a gap for students who cannot reside full time on campus. The program is accredited by The Association of Theological Schools, and will begin in fall 2013. Applications now are being accepted. In more detail

The Best Patristics is Always Confessional

An interview with Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. In more detail

Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD

Jesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity. Peter Brown examines the rise of the church through the lens of money and the challenges it posed to an institution that espoused the virtue of poverty and called avarice the root of all evil.  In more detail

The Real England: A Tribute to the Saints of Barking

In this talk, first given at the annual Orthodox pilgrimage to the monastery of Barking, England, Fr Alexander Tefft examines the long history of Barking Abbey, a monastery that played an important role in the life of the English Church. He describes the saints connected with the abbey, and poses the question: for Orthodox Christians, living in an increasingly multi-ethnic society, what is the real England? In more detail

An Open Letter on a Looming Disaster in Iran

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The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy

Theosis, or the principle of divine-human communion, sparks the theological imagination of Orthodox Christians and has been historically important to questions of political theology. In The Mystical as Political: Democracy and Non-Radical Orthodoxy, Aristotle Papanikolaou argues that a political theology grounded in the principle of divine-human communion must be one that unequivocally endorses a political community that is democratic in a way that structures itself around the modern liberal principles of freedom of religion, the protection of human rights, and church-state separation. In more detail

Conference on the importance of the Pan-Orthodox Council

An interview with Peter De Mey, one of the organisers of the conference "The Forthcoming Council of the Orthodox Church: Understanding the Challenges" (18-20 October 2012, Paris), and the Director of the Centre for Ecumenical Research in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. In more detail

Eastern Christianity: A Crossroads of Cultures (Florence Jullien, ed.)

Eastern Christianity is pluralistic. How might exchanges among Christians in geographic areas where different expressions of Christianity developed in the ancient Near and Middle East have been determining factors in the evolution of specific Churches? Encounters among Christians during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages resulted in fertile adaptations and enrichments leading, through mutations and cross-influences, to the emergence of new identities. Such interculturality provides a response to the challenges of the dominating Byzantine, Persian, and Arabic cultures, as expressed through intellectual currents, artistic influences, and constructions of traditions.  In more detail

A Syrian Greek Archbishop: God’s Gift to Canterbury

As the Church of England prepares for a new Archbishop of Canterbury, Fr John Nankivell looks at the life and lasting influence of an earlier Archbishop of that see, St Theodore of Tarsus, focusing on the many ways in which this holy, wise and learned man transformed the Church in England. In more detail

Interview with Ioli Kalavrezou, Dumbarton Oaks Professor-in-Residence

Director of Byzantine Studies Margaret Mullett spoke recently with Professor Kalavrezou about her research, and about her time at Dumbarton Oaks both in the past and at present. In more detail

The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies

The Bible has always been a contested legacy. Form late antiquity to the Refomation, debates about the Bible took place at the center of manifold movements that defined Western civilization. In the eigtheenth century, Europe's scriptural inheritance surfaced once again at a critical moment. During the Enlightenment, scholars guided by a new vision of a post-theological age did not simply investigate the Bible, they remade it. In place of the familiar scriptural Bibles that belonged to Christian and Jewish communities, they created a new form: the academic Bible. In this book, Michael Legaspi examines the creation of the academic Bible. Beginning with the fragmentation of biblical interpretation in the centuries after the Reformation, Legaspi shows how the weakening of scriptural authority in the Western churches altered the role of biblical interpretation. In more detail

Orthodox Readings of Aquinas

This book is the first exploration of the remarkable odyssey of Thomas Aquinas in the Orthodox Christian world, from the Byzantine to the modern era. Aquinas was received with astonishing enthusiasm across the Byzantine theological spectrum. By contrast, modern Orthodox readings of Aquinas have been resoundingly negative, routinely presenting Aquinas as the archetype of as a specifically Western form of theology against which the Orthodox East must set its face. Basing itself primarily on a close study of the Byzantine reception of Thomas, this study rejects such hackneyed dichotomies, arguing instead for a properly catholic or universal construal of Orthodoxy – one in which Thomas might once again find a place. In more detail

The death of a person in patristic tradition: metaphysical, spiritual and moral aspects

The life-affirming Biblical concept of death permeates almost the entire theological heritage of the Church, from the early Christian writings up until the present time. Priest Vladimir Bashkirov, Doctor of Theology, Professor at the Minsk Theological Academy and head of the Theology Department of the Belorussian State University Institute of Theology, provides examples of this drawing on a wide range of biblical and patristic sources. In more detail

New French student Byzantine association created

L’Association des étudiants du monde byzantin (The Association of Students of the Byzantine World) aims to unite Byzantinist students in an associative structure. It facilitates exchanges between students in all disciplines involved in this field, creates a bridge between undergraduate students or master and doctoral students and young doctors, and allows students to learn about the various ongoing work in the Byzantine field, as well as French and foreign teachers who are likely to welcome them to continue their studies. Finally, it helps students of other periods to gain familiarity with Byzantine studies and the diversity of the field. In more detail

What is the Judgement?

Renowned pastor and theologian Metropolitan Georges Khodr reflects on the nature of judgement and sin, both before and after death. In more detail

A Theology of Higher Education

In this book, Mike Higton provides a constructive critique of Higher Education policy and practice in the UK, the US and beyond, from the standpoint of Christian theology. He focuses on the role universities can and should play in forming students and staff in intellectual virtue, in sustaining vibrant communities of inquiry, and in serving the public good. He argues both that modern secular universities can be a proper context for Christians to pursue their calling as disciples to learn and to teach, and that Christians can contribute to the flourishing of such universities as institutions devoted to learning for the common good. In more detail

Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology

The Muslim thinker al-Ghazali (d. 1111) was one of the most influential theologians and philosophers of Islam and has been considered an authority in both Western and Islamic philosophical traditions. Born in northeastern Iran, he held the most prestigious academic post in Islamic theology in Baghdad, only to renounce the position and teach at small schools in the provinces for no money. His contributions to Islamic scholarship range from responding to the challenges of Aristotelian philosophy to creating a new type of Islamic mysticism and integrating both these traditions–falsafa and Sufism–into the Sunni mainstream. This book offers a comprehensive study of al-Ghazali's life and his understanding of cosmology–how God creates things and events in the world, how human acts relate to God's power, and how the universe is structured.  In more detail

The Typikon Decoded: An Explanation of Byzantine Liturgical Practice

The Byzantine liturgy, with its beauty, its richness, and its depth, intrigues, inspires, and fascinates a great number of today’s Christians; and yet it remains for many almost inaccessible if not incomprehensible. The Typikon, the liturgical book that contains the order of the liturgical celebration, is complex, whence the necessity of “decoding” it both for recent converts and for “cradle” Orthodox Christians desiring to deepen their liturgical observance. In more detail

New publication: Journal of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music

Joensuu, Finland - The International Society for Orthodox Church Music (founded 2005) is pleased to announce its new online peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music.  Publication will be annual, and open access and the first issue will appear in Spring 2013, available as a PDF download on the ISOCM site. In more detail

Inaugural CUAC Lecture by Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury gives the Dr Rowan Williams Annual CUAC Lecture on the nature and aim of Christian – and in particular Anglican – higher education. Watch here. In more detail